Adventures of Sonic and Friends: The Beginning
by sirthursday1
Summary: Sonic the hedgehog, hero, thrill seeker, jokester, and friend. Yes Sonic is a friend to many and like a hero would do all he could to keep them smiling. Too bad they aren't one to lay back and let the Sonic do all the work. This time they'll get involved and there's nothing the hedgehog can do but shrug and roll with it. It's time for the adventures of Sonic and Friends.
1. Chapter 1

All hail Sega, they own Sonic and the majority of his buddies. This weak author will attempt to entertain you with a records of Sonic's adventures, and his friends of course. From the very beginning. Please enjoy.

It was a pair of red shoes, each with a single white stripe and a golden buckle, that touched onto the grass of South Island. Those shoes belonged to Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. A known hero even at the young age of ten, he had followed rumors that his nemesis Dr. Eggman had been seen on South Island. Breathing in that fresh natural air, Sonic was able to catch the faint whiff of industrial soot and spilled oil. Tapping the tip of his shoe into the dirt several times, the blue hedgehog headed towards the sure signs of the doctor's presence. The mysterious South Island was a natural treasure trove of ancient ruins and gems. There shouldn't have been any signs of modern machines or factories on the island. There had to be a reason and that reason was sure to be big, fat and in possession of a large mustache.

Sonic could give a guess as to why Eggman would come here to spoil the island's pristine environment with the existence of choking smoke and toxic waste besides the doctor's general apathy towards nature. For rumored to be part of South Island's treasure trove were the mystical Chaos Emeralds.

These Chaos Emeralds were a set of mysterious super-materials that had limitless energy and could supply infinite power to any living being. Though they also had another property that would have drawn the attention of a mad scientist like Eggman. When applied to scientific purposes, the emeralds could be used as an infinite power source for nuclear and laser based weaponry or any type of machinery. Thankfully for the world however, nobody knew exactly how to get a hold of these emeralds.

Yet Sonic recalled as he ran forward that South Island's peculiar trait of constant motion throughout the sea was because of the emeralds' power. The wind as always rushed through the blue hedgehog's quills until he jumped to grind the side of his shoes into the dust. Above the hedgehog, gloating in his Egg mobile, was the infamous Dr. Eggman. Stroking his long brown mustache he pointed to the blue blur below him. "Sonic…you annoying, impertinent hedgehog. Thanks to you, my great plans are always laid to waste!" Wringing his hands, the doctor grew a sinister smile. "Oh, but this time, I'm going to rub you out with the power of science! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Sonic only raised an eyebrow at Eggman's posturing. With his head shaking and eyes closed in exasperation Sonic said. "Eggman, you still haven't had enough?" He shifted his weight allowing him to rest his right hand on his hip and tap the tip of his foot into the grass. "It's always the same, you come with big plans and then I blow them wide open." The hedgehog waved his other hand in an arc. Really Dr. Eggman never seemed to leave him alone, even though Sonic had beaten him every time so far. The doctor always returned, rotten to the core and with a new evil scheme to carry out.

Anyway it looked like Eggman's next defeat would be a cinch. Yet Eggman's smile never left his face, even as Sonic told the doctor how easy victory would be. This time something was amiss and then the Doctor said. "Have you seen it, Sonic? This time is going to be different!"

Eggman put his finger down towards the ground and to Sonic's ears came the sound of mechanical joints clacking and grinding, "Because this time, I've turned all the animals on the island into robots!" Doctor Eggman said but there was nothing to be seen at first. Yet they slowly rose. Onto the cliffs and emerged from the depths of the island's waters. Their metal bodies gleaming under the bright noon day sun. There were all sorts of new robot minions of different shapes and sizes under the control of Dr. Eggman.

Sonic stumbled back, his eyes wide at what the doctor was implying with his latest scheme.. "E...Everybody!?" The hedgehog had rushed through the island and noticed there was a lack of animals. However he was under the impression that they were all startled by his great speed and hid themselves. But he could have never imagined that they were all enslaved by Eggman.

The Doctor savored the shock on the hedgehog's face. "All of these new badniks go about in accordance to my orders. In other words, Sonic, everyone on the island is your enemy! Gya— Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The doctor began to hack and cough, he really wasn't in the best of shape but he managed to slam his hand on the controls again. "Once I have those Chaos Emeralds, the world really will be mine!" "You can't stop me from claiming them hedgehog. Even if I have to dig up the entire island to find them!" His gloating complete, the doctor turned his Eggmobile around."Well I'll leave you all to get acquainted. Farewell hedgehog" And Eggman flew off with a dramatic swoop and Sonic with a sinking feeling in his stomach..

Still the hedgehog wasn't one to stick around moping even at this turn of events. He jumped up to chase after the doctor, spin jumping into several of those robot minions, badniks. The impact of his quills and kinetic energy ripped those metallic bodies apart into scrap. Turning back, his black eyes that glinted harshly in the sunlight softened at the sight of his animal friends freed from their metallic prison. Eggman really wasn't lying, the doctor had locked up several of his animal friends such as small Flicky bluebirds and the Pocky rabbits into those metallic shells. It was likely for the sake of providing a power source for the badniks. Sonic just pulled further on his gloves and clenched his hand into a fist. He had more at stake than just stopping the doctor now, the freedom of his animal friends was on the line. But at least there was something he could do about the fact his animal friends were imprisoned and that meant destroying every Badnik he could see. With that worry off his mind, Sonic focused back on the trail of the doctor and entered the Green Hill zone. His trusty speed carried him forward past the tall palms and the bright sunflowers. A parade of ladybug patterned Moto-bugs and wasp shaped Buzz Bombers swooped and revved towards the hedgehog, intent on taking out this obstacle in the Doctor's way. Those robots were destroyed with his spin jump move in a flash leaving nothing behind but grateful animals and the smell of burnt rubber and seared steel.

The blue blur continued to race forward, scattered rings around the route just being gathered up like nothing. After all, when Sonic beat Dr. Eggman again, he'll want to splurge on some Chili-dogs. Anyway Sonic in his mad dash encountered the signs of Eggman's presence on the island. From the ever present badniks to the large number of metal spikes placed everywhere, Sonic thought the doctor had too much time on his hands. As he approached a sign post claiming the area for Doctor Eggman, he gave it a smack. Spinning wildly, it eventually stopped with a picture of Sonic instead, much better for the environment in the hedgehog's opinion. "Heh, if this is the best Eggman can come up with, this'll be a breeze" Sonic said looking back at the distance he had covered.

It was then that he spotted a huge ring, and seeing that it was no different from other rings except for the size he leapt towards it. And then Sonic entered a whole new world completely different from the green grass, crystal blue bay and checkerboard hills. There was no floor, in truth no solid axis as the world. Sonic was stuck rolled into a ball for there was no solid base for him to stand and get his bearings. The hedgehog's blue head was spinning and his sinuses felt full. Fishes shifted to birds, then to clouds and back again with no sense of distance between the walls and bumpers Sonic was bouncing off of. Eventually he went crashing into a wall of crystals, slowly grinding them out of existence. When they finally gave way Sonic found himself grabbing on to something and regretted it as world span even faster, this time centered on him. There was a sudden flash of light that nearly blinded the hedgehog through his closed eyes.

He toppled onto the green, green grass of Green Hill Zone, the gentle stalks rustling against his knees. Leaning against a lamppost that suddenly lit itself blue at his touch, Sonic's stomach heaved as he recalled just had happened to him. The disorienting, nauseating skewed zone that he found himself in with no sense of what was up, down or any sort of direction at all. The sour smelling remains of chili-dogs lay in a puddle against the lamppost while the hedgehog continued to cough roughly. Sure Sonic could handle curling into a ball and hurling himself towards an enemy, spinning all the while. But that place was something else, it didn't help that at the speeds Sonic ran had harsh winds that were murder on his throat. Sonic took his hand to his spinning and unsteady head and felt something hard inside of it. The hedgehog opened his hand and inside was a Chaos Emerald, green in color and catching the light with its brilliantly cut facets. "No way." Sonic said hacking once more, Doctor Eggman was ripping up the island and enslaving his animal friends for these emeralds. And it turns out he actually has one in his hand right now, which was really wack.

Sonic put it away somewhere safe, he needed to keep these things out of Eggman's hands. Though his stomach turned queasy at the realization that to get those emeralds, he'll have to go back to that weird zone again. But he was resolute turning his gaze towards the horizon. He headed off to the next Zone, arms outstretched behind him. Ahead, bridges saved Sonic from his other nemesis, water. Though he was still hardly safe what with fish-like Choppers jumping up to take a bite out of him. Thankfully a series of spin jumps took them out quickly. He found that there was something off about a group of sunflowers and took a leap of faith over the spikes behind them. It was a stroke of luck as he crashed into another container. Everything seemed to take on a strange blue tint this time. All around him, Sonic could see that he was now in some sort of transparent blue sphere. He shrugged and continued forward, spinning through an obviously fake wall and into another container. The hedgehog felt his body was further energized and the blue blur became even harder to see as his speed increased further.

Dodging an entire floor of gleaming sharp spikes, Sonic continued forward smashing some more badniks, gaining height and freedom for more of his animal friends. He got quite the view of the bay and its fresh water scent from atop of a loop de loop. He did have to give pause when he encountered the strange sight of moving cliffs, though the sharp points of spikes between these heights showed exactly who was responsible for this maniac geography. "Oh Eggman. You've got too much time on your hands." Sonic jumped onto the next cliff when it moved to a reachable height. Some Buzz Bombers tried to take advantage of Sonic's lack of mobility. A face full of quills soon put a stop to that, from there it was just a leisurely run and roll through a tunnel towards reclaiming the area from Eggman. Then the hedgehog spotted yet another large gold ring, rotating in mid-air. Sighing, he dived back into that bizarre area, the Special Zone. The surroundings were yet again filled with birds, green of feather and fish that were blue in scale. There was no sense of distance and Sonic's belly ached again from the spinning and the sights around him. Bubbles and clouds floated, moving regardless of the stillness of the world. Except for the rotating walls of this weird maze Sonic found himself in again. Throwing himself against the shattering crystals as they changed color from the impacts, Sonic was treated to another blinding flash of white and the sensation of the world revolving around him.

When he opened his eyes to the noon day sun, the fresh scent of flowers and the gentle roar of the waves in the bay, the world was still spinning. "Okay I'm just going to stop for a sec. " He brought up his wrist to his mouth and spotted yet another emerald in his hand, silver this time. "Two down... more to go." Sonic said swaying side to side for a few seconds. With another deep breath he straightened up and kept on running forward. Spotting an odd shadow cast by the palm trees, Sonic jumped up and felt a new sense of energy and was surrounded by a sparkling aura. It cleared up any lingering nausea that he had and allowed him to laugh at the moat of spikes blocking the way as he literally ran over them. Sonic's quills ground through another fake wall he spotted coming a mile away and that led him to duck into a tunnel.

When he reached fresh air again, the breeze was spoiled by the sudden appearance of lizard-like badniks and a crab. They all were turned into a crowd of grateful rabbits and Flicky birds. A spring took Sonic high into the air, the wind rushing by him. When his feet reached solid earth again, he had to shake his head at the latest obstacle blocking his way. A spiral spiked log slowly spinning above a large rushing waterfall. Sonic sighed as he had to painfully, agonizingly and above all else slowly make his way across the log. Sadly the slow pace didn't suit the hedgehog and just had to speed up, giving leave for some spikes to dig into his feet. Sonic gritted his teeth and panted, hopping from foot to foot. The spray from a nearby waterfall was calming enough to have him running again instead of awkwardly hopping. Yet he still couldn't suppress a shiver when he leapt over yet another pit of spikes, their sharp ends gleaming in the bright light from the cloudless sky. That soaring jump had him impact something in the trees, and Sonic felt himself energized and a familiar blue sparkling aura surrounded him yet again. Carried forward with this new energy he eventually with a screech and a trail of dust braked himself with a turn of his shoes. Sonic's view turned to see hovering in the air in his egg mobile yet again was Dr. Eggman. "Yohohoho, Sonic. You think you've done well to make it this far but no more. Your meddling ends here." Arms outstretched over the Eggmobile, Eggman declared. "Behold my latest creation. The... the..." Sonic crossed his arms, raised his eyebrow and just quietly tapped his foot, wanting to get the beat down going. Eggman spluttered, finally giving up the attempt to dramatically reveal his latest creation. "Alright, I was hoping you wouldn't even get this far." He slammed his hand down on the console and came to a hasty decision. "Fine! Behold Sonic, the Eggmobile H!" Said mobile had a bottom hatch that opened and a large checkered sphere dropped down on a chain which against all expectations due to its weight, had links that clinked against each other. Then against all the rules of physics, it swung upwards behind Eggman and hurled itself towards Sonic.

The hedgehog jumped up onto a ledge above him and leapt off of it just as the wrecking ball crashed into the wall next to it. Debris and rather large rocks were sent flying out from the impact, bouncing harmlessly against the ground. Sonic on the other hand, curled into a ball headed straight for a crash course into the Egg Mobile H. Of course the impact made Sonic bounce off the vehicle way too close for comfort near the returning wrecking ball. Still some very delicate yet bulky machinery was jostled inside of the Egg Mobile H. Then Sonic took off running to a ledge behind Eggman, not that the doctor would let the hedgehog do as he would without a fight. The doctor pulled on the controls, thrusters moving his vehicle along with the motion of wrecking ball. Sonic kept on leaping, somersaulting over the pursuing checkered sphere. His body and quills smashing and piercing the metal round frame of Eggman's machine. Sparks and arcs of electricity danced across broken circuits and disabled motors, pistons and engines. Even more worrying for the doctor were that the important parts regulating control of the machine's functions began to fall out of the holes made by Sonic with every attack the hedgehog made. This only made Eggman set the speed of his Egg Mobile H into overdrive, trying to squish Sonic underneath the inertia defying weight of the wrecking ball. The doctor got in one lucky shot but had his mustache droop at the sight of Sonic shrugging it off with the energy of that aura of his. One last impact with Sonic jostled one part too many and open fuel line set off a chain mini explosions all around the machine. The weapon attachment was now deadweight so Eggman had the chain dropped and the wrecking ball crashed on the ground, making a sizable crater. "Curse you hedgehog, this isn't the end!" Eggman shouted as he flew off, face full of soot and Egg Mobile smoking.

Sonic chased after him but slowed down at the sight that loomed up before him. Contrasting harshly against the natural setting of the zone was something more important he had to deal with and gave Eggman a chance to escape. It was a large metallic capsule with a logo of Eggman's face on its side. The soft sound of manic scratching came from inside the container. The hedgehog's eyes widened and the blue blur jumped up, spotting a yellow switch on the top of the capsule he slammed himself on it. Bouncing off the device, behind the hedgehog a chain of explosions shattered the walls of the container. Fleeing in droves from the machine prison were more brown and white Pocky bunnies and small Flicky bluebirds. Sonic smiled at the sight of his animal friends having their freedom returned to them. But Eggman was still out there over the horizon and the hedgehog continued his pursuit of the mad scientist yet again.


	2. Chapter 2

The sky dimmed as clouds muted the sun from the world. Mountains rose in Sonic's sight as he entered the location known as the Marble Zone. Though it didn't seem like anything here was actually made of that material.

The ruins here were made of some purple rock instead. Those remnants from a far more ancient time littered the landscape, crumbling but still standing as a testament to those who came before. Furthermore, as Sonic ran across it, he noted that the grass grew in two varieties giving an odd striped pattern of light and dark.

But enough of his attention was given to the landscape and Sonic headed towards the badniks, familiar and new, littering the landscape. Buzz Bombers, the firefly like robots flew into position. Their stingers were instead energy cannons shooting a rain of lasers down at the hedgehog while Caterkillers, long spiked worm badniks crawled slowly across the ground. The caterpillar-based badniks were confident, for a robot that their spikes would protect from any rolling hedgehog assault.

Sonic for his part jumped and curled up into a spinning ball of spines, his trajectory ending up smashing into the robots. The hedgehog timed his impacts to avoid being skewered by the spikes upon the Caterkillers. The aftermath was a trail of squirrels left to scurry away to freedom. Though the way they made Olympic style rodent leaps to avoid being roast squirrel had an unusual form of grace.

Furthermore, the hedgehog gained height bouncing off the enemies like platforms to land on some more ridges of purple brick. He wobbled before firmly planting his feet on the ground. There was hardly any time to take a breath as the grass suddenly caught aflame! Sonic's weight on the ground had sunk the stone island enough that the grass touched the lava moat and caught fire.

That fire began to spread all over the surface of the platform. Sonic raced forward to escape being burned, leaping to wreck distance and badniks and soaring over fireballs that just shot out of the lava at random. It was all down hill from here and Sonic had to pause to gain some speed to cross over several rings of lava moats.

As he leapt over a chasm before the moats, he looked back and saw there was a hidden chamber behind him within the chasm. It made sense; this was an ancient area of ruins; secret rooms and passages should be littering the place.

Eventually however Sonic's way forward was soon blocked by a very tall wall of those very durable bricks made of that strange purple stone. Sonic curled into a spin dash hoping that he would be to grind a path through the wall. He found his quills were unable to make even a single scratch upon the material though.

However, Sonic wouldn't let a little thing like that stop him from thwarting Eggman. Remembering that he saw a secret room before getting to this wall, he looked around and saw the floor just behind him sinking into the ground slowly and steadily. What was revealed to the hedgehog was another passageway deep underground with a red glow coming from the depths.

He dived into the tunnel and was met with a giant blast of stale heat. Quills drooping, the hedgehog saw that he was now in some sort of underground tunnel the hot glow of lava providing the only source of light. Sonic blinked several times as even that reddish and yellow glow was occasionally cut off leaving the boy in periods of darkness.

Taking deep breaths, Sonic carefully ran through a gauntlet of mysterious piston machines with a patina of age moving stately up and down constantly for whatever unknown purpose. Once he past those pistons he found his light source wasn't blocked off anymore.

Then Sonic found his way barred yet again, but this time it was by some sort of metal platform covering another hole down to a lower level deeper into the tunnel system he found himself in. The hedgehog found the switch to pull the covering up and stepped on it to raise the platform, spotting its bottom had a nasty table of spikes. However, it couldn't be that simple and Sonic found he had to use a handy heavy block to keep the switch pressed down or else the platform would drop down before he could go any further.

Feeling pressed for time, Sonic raced forwards but sadly ran straight into a hidden spike trap. His collected rings scattered around him, the energy within shielding the hedgehog from serious injury. It still stung like nobody's business. Grumbling, Sonic dropped down picking up what few rings stuck around and found himself at the shore of a lake of lava.

"Great, now how am I supposed to cross?" The hedgehog tapped his foot looking all over for a way to advance, backtracking at this point would be meaningless cause there wasn't any other way around the wall that sent him here in the first place.

Surprisingly the answer made itself clear while Sonic was tapping his feet in puzzlement. Some purple invincible bricks began falling from the ceiling. They landed and floated on top of the lava, providing a path for the hedgehog to make his way across the lake of molten rock and searing heat.

Sonic's teeth ground together however as the blocks weren't helpful enough to fall down all at once but instead did so in a slow cascade. He rushed over the islands on the lava lake, feeling he was wasting enough time waiting around the lava lake. Sonic then found himself squished underneath a heavy counter weight to some mechanisms that dropped down out of nowhere.

Thankfully, his rings protected him, but Sonic did grumble at their loss and at the crushing weight that forced him onto his belly. Thankfully, the trap released its pressure on the hedgehog's body He pulled himself up, pushing with shaky arms and legs and kept on going, jumping up onto the only ledge in sight. At first, there were no other paths but a sudden drop of metal platform with rows of spikes on its underside allowed for the hedgehog to gain height.

It was a long slow climb up and out of the dungeon, made more annoying by bat like badniks swooping down every so often. But at least Sonic was able to get on the other side of the great purple wall and breathed that fresh air. Yet there no sign of Eggman then but the area claim signpost was just up ahead. Seizing the area from Eggman's control, the hedgehog went deeper into the ruins.

The remnants of a lost civilization raced past as Sonic made his way deeper into the Marble Zone. Blowing apart Buzz Bombers released some captive seals from their prison. But the hedgehog found his path led him inside one of the building complexes. Underground he had to deal with annoying lava moats, booby traps that fired jets of flame and even ran for his life against a racing flood of lava within the deepest level of the complex. To Sonic, the caterkillers were just overkill but the surprise spring that bounced him back into them was just nasty.

The hedgehog found himself in for a long wait to be carried across yet another lava moat, but at least it had the exciting feature of plumes of lava blasting the brick he used as a raft high into the air. Sonic found himself in the dimming afternoon light yet again but sadly due to the odd construction and ravages of time, he found himself needing to go back underground again with its slow inducing tunnels. Grumbling all the while, it came as a relief to the speedy hedgehog when he burst that container of protective energy. He raced the last few lengths of distance to the area signpost, laughing at lava, sudden drops of heavy spikes and the caterkillers with their sharp spines.

When Sonic entered the next area, his quills stood on end. He could feel the presence of Eggman in the air. He was totally going to show Eggman who's boss around here. Sonic made his way downhill, gathering some protective rings when he felt the floor drop down under him. The hedgehog's eyes raced to see another secret passage behind him and he gave an easy shrug. It didn't seem like going into those secret passages were doing any harm.

Sonic started having second thoughts when he encountered all the defenses within. Crushing weights and spikes, pitfalls into lava, badniks, and more of those turrets shooting balls of fire that singed uncomfortably close. Sonic had the thought earlier that Eggman hadn't really done much of anything inside these Marble Zone buildings. But with this sudden spike of booby traps, the hedgehog began to suspect that something was being guarded here. When Sonic spotted a corridor that led to nowhere but still had a spike trap installed, he had his interest and suspicions piqued. "Why would there be a trap at a dead end?" He said.

The blue hedgehog left over the spikes and promptly fell down the fake floor covering a long deep shaft. With a large splat and face plant, Sonic landed in what seemed to be a much older part of the buildings. It didn't seem there was any foot holds to jump back up. Thankfully there was another passage leading away from where he fell. Sonic however had to make his way slowly, what light that came from torches and lava above him faded away the deeper he went in. With one hand on the wall, he kept walking.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Sonic's eyes caught the smallest glimmer of light in the distance. Speeding up, Sonic ran and the speck became bigger until it was a full on rectangle. The hedgehog shielded his eyes from the sudden glare and his pupils widened at the sight inside.

It was a whole entire chamber filled with strange machinery, but what made this room's devices much difference was the change in complexity. The technology in this room seemed to be more modern and futuristic, beyond what Sonic had seen in the Marble Zone. Then there was something in the middle of the room seizing the hedgehog's attention. He wasn't alone in this room.

Floating upside down within a glass cylinder was a person. It looked like he was sleeping, a raccoon with gray fur and velvet colored facemask. Out of the boy's mouth drifted every occasionally bubbles that floated up in the fluid the raccoon was suspended. Sonic took a few hesitant steps forward, ears flicked to catch any change in sound. He came closer to the glass tube, and then silver eyes opened to meet black ones with hints of green. Sonic stumbled back at this sudden sight. "Whoa!" He said but crept closer. "Who're you?"

The raccoon blinked so Sonic knew that the person inside heard him. Then the hedgehog saw the raccoon's mouth move but no sound was heard on the part of Sonic. But the hedgehog Sonic realized whatever liquid this guy was in blocked out sound. The blue hedgehog came closer.

"Hey, you okay, Eggman didn't lock you up in here did he?" Sonic scanned down, seeing a bunch of mechanical controls, switches, dials and meters all of which made little sense to him. "Hold on 'kay I'm going to get you out of here." Sonic said, the surprising clean air barely aggravating his throat. He spotted a large red button, and from prior experience, something like that usually did something important. So Sonic pushed it and the machinery in the room rumbled softly.

Within the tube, the fluid clear and tinted slightly green drained slowly through a hidden grate. As the fluid level sank so did the captive inside sink with it. Eventually the raccoon was curled up at the bottom of the tube. The glass tube removed itself. The raccoon blinked several times at Sonic and there was an uncomfortable silence.

But the hedgehog repeated his question and got a garbled response from the raccoon that Sonic couldn't understand. "You alright there?" The former prisoner paused, forehead strained in thought and then said. "Yes.. Thank you for letting me out..." Sonic scratched at the back of his head. At first, it seemed like the raccoon didn't understand him but that didn't seem to be the case.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog. So who are you, and why were you in that thing?" Sonic pointed to the now deactivated machine. The raccoon's voice was soft and stumbled over the words, as if relearning to talk after so long being silent. "I'm Lens, and well.. Why I was in there... " Lens' voice cut off and had Sonic do something he disliked, waiting.

"Come on then." Sonic said, "why were you put in there?" He carelessly waved towards the machine remaining behind the raccoon. But there was no answer but Lens' gaze to the floor. The hedgehog scratched at his quills. "Well you don't have to say if you don't want to." Sonic said softly. "Do you know how to get out of here?" The raccoon's head popped up and gave a slow nod. He unsteadily got up to his feet and guided Sonic to another hidden passage behind the giant now de-active machine.

"Cool, now let's get out of here." Sonic said, racing into the tunnel. It was several meters before the hedgehog remembered, almost nobody could catch up to his speed. "Aw man" he sighed, leaving that kid just didn't sit right with the hedgehog. He turned back and saw that the kid was behind him, although breathing heavily and leaning on his knees. "Whoa you can keep up with me?" Sonic said in surprise.

"Not really " Lens said, wobbling from side to side. His voice still wasn't very loud but it was enough in the quiet air of the tunnel.

"Fine then" Sonic said and kept racing forward, but he did peek behind him to see how the raccoon was keeping up with his speed. It was an interesting way to move, Sonic could say that at least. The kid, well that was what the guy seemed to be didn't so much as move fast as to cross a larger distance per step. Then again, something as simple as that wouldn't have been enough to catch up to Sonic's speed. But at least it allowed Sonic to keep moving without worrying and that was good.

A light came at the end of the tunnel, well actually, a spring but it was able to send Sonic and then Lens upwards. The bricks raced past Sonic's sight and he saw they decreased in the wear of time as he rose higher. Sonic spotted light above him, it came through cracks though and the hedgehog saw that they were going to crash into a brick ceiling. He wouldn't let that happen and curled into a ball, rotating at high speed. His spines went and blasted the obstructing stone apart.

Sonic landed on his feet and one hand, while slightly behind him, Lens flopped onto the ground. "You okay, nothing broken?" Sonic asked. When the raccoon shook his head at the question, Sonic turned back to run forward yet again. However, there was one set of traps that got the hedgehog rather irritated. It was a series of spikes that alternated being sprung and retracted at different time periods. They forced him to stop and time his passage. "Boy, what I wouldn't give for a way to skip all these traps." While Sonic was always up for a little danger and excitement, all this waiting around wasn't in his style.

"Well..." Sonic turned back to Lens, who still following, spoke and pointed forward. "If, if I remember right. There's a hidden passage over there." Over there was a wall, and the only way to reach it was some helpful and dangerous giant spiked counterweights. Their tops doubled as platforms and Sonic used these to make his way over and crashed into the wall.

Loose bricks flew away from the impact, and Sonic followed by Lens bypassed many other traps through the hidden tunnel. Though the raccoon mentioned that the end of the tunnel led to the bottom a pit. Said pit had a trap with another bottom-spiked platform falling down to cover it. The two avoided it fairly easily only for Sonic to be further annoyed at the slow pace to avoid some booby-trapped stairs.

It got even more ridiculous with jets shooting balls of flames, batbrains that were small purple flying badniks swooping down every so often and the final spiked wall after crossing over a giant lake of lava from dangling counterweights was just one more small annoyance in this stifling dungeon.

But finally, Sonic breathed in the fresh air yet again and Lens staring out over the purple ruins, green grass and the rapidly fading cloudy blue sky. Then the raccoon just blinked and shook his head, looking towards Sonic. There was a trusting expression in the gray boy's eyes.

At first Sonic thought it would be the end of the kid following him once they had gotten outside. But the hedgehog just couldn't leave this raccoon kid out here, all alone looking so lost. He was pretty sure if he did leave, Lens would end up in trouble pretty quickly. "Ah come on then." Sonic rushed off slipping over lava moats that continued to shoot balls of flame for some reason, dutifully followed by the raccoon.

Then a familiar ugly mug showed up. "Eggman!" Sonic said with fist clenched. "You aren't getting away this time." Eggman merely laughed at this declaration of war. The doctor was in a new Egg-mobile model. This time it had a cone like attachment on its very bottom.

"Hahahaha Sonic I see you picked up a straggler, but it will hardly make a difference. Now prepared to be flash fried by my Egg-mobile M!" Eggman floated over to the platform where Sonic was. The hedgehog caught the doctor's machine in a parting shot as he jumped over the gap of lava.

The Egg-mobile M wobbled from the impact. However, in retaliation, the doctor dropped a large hunk of fire down. The entire top of the purple stone caught aflame. To the hedgehog's panic, the fire spread to where Lens was. Sure, he just met the guy but that didn't mean he should be caught up in this fight like that.

The flames parted ways as the gray raccoon, marked with soot stains, came flailing to where Sonic was. Sonic grit his teeth and glared at the doctor. "Eggman, that's no good."

It was a sad beat down on the doctor after that. The Egg-mobile H had only one offensive ability, and that was to drop fuel to set an area aflame. Furthermore the vehicle was slow and when it was in a position to fire again, the flames from its previous shot had died out.

So it was simple to jump back and forth, slowly damaging Eggman's machine. To the both the doctor's and the blue boy's shock , Eggman got a kick to the face from an unexpected source. Sonic chuckled a bit, as Lens had somehow gotten up onto the Egg-mobile and was putting his foot into Eggman's shiny chrome dome through tears and complaints of how much being set on fire hurt.

Sonic finished up with the destruction of Eggman's war machine with one last spin dash. Mini-explosions occurring burst across the machine and Lens bailed out of kicking Eggman's head like a football. "This isn't the end hedgehog and you raccoon!" Eggman spat as he fled. Sonic went to chase the mad scientist but the sudden slamming of an animal capsule stopped him in his tracks.

The blue blur jumped into the air and a quick slam on the top of the capsule busts the animal friends out. The little critters fled from their prison in droves. Hearing someone breathing heavily behind him, the hedgehog looked back to Lens. The raccoon had singed fur all over the place and seemed unsteady on his feet.

"Hey you okay there? You didn't need to get involved. I can take care of Eggman myself" Sonic winced as Lens seemed to fold in on himself again; seriously, it was like the kid didn't understand he needed to be kept safe. Though Sonic shouldn't be one to talk. "But yeah, you did pretty well. Eggman looked so stupid with you giving it to him like that" Sonic said and was rewarded with a more cheerful masked face.

Sonic blinked at the grateful eyes locking onto his own. Seriously what was with that kid, it wasn't anything special so he did help out and made Eggman look more like an idiot. Sonic turned away to the distance where Eggman fled, the towering heights of a city starkly contrasting against the pristine nature of the island. "I guess that's where we're off to next then." Sonic said giving an inviting wave of the hand as he dashed off. Lens nodded, following the rush of blue speed heading towards the city.


	3. Chapter 3

The sky grew purple and the flashing of glitzy lights sliced down from their heights in the city. Underneath Sonic's feet, the paving of the ground changed from ancient tile to concrete. Sonic made his way into the city followed by a raccoon he found in the marble zone ruins. Their path took them high onto the city's rooftops. Occasionally they bounced off for bumpers with a yellow star logo on them. Any badniks along their path were destroyed, well it was mostly Sonic doing the destroying.

Up high upon the skyscrapers, strong winds rushed around the duo. Sonic noticed Lens looking down at the nearly abandoned city down below. The buildings had fresh walls that barely weathered wind or rain. Yet even with nobody living in there. The entire city looked ruined and decrepit.

The worst part of it was that the raccoon looked at the buildings so despondently. "You alright?" Sonic said, keeping the raccoon in sight from the corner of his eyes.

"It's so empty..." Lens sounded dead. From what Sonic could see, the other kid's eyes were dull and listless.

"Hey, there's you, and me right? I'm quite enough for a coon to not consider the city empty." Sonic thumb pointed to himself. Pretty sure he was awesome enough to drive out whatever had gotten the raccoon down. It seemed to work

The sound of hacking then cut the gathering tension within the air. Sonic coughed into his fist while still maintaining constant speed. It was the ever present chill of the evening air sharply rushing past the inside of his throat.

Lens frowned and his head went back to that acute angle as if everything that existed or done was a entirely new puzzled. "Is something wrong?" He said, voice wavering among the question.

Sonic just held one hand out signaling everything's cool while hacking into his elbow. "Nothing" Sonic said through that occasional deep breath. "just running in the cold is murder on my throat." He had a strong body that could take a lot of punishment. The blue hedgehog had been crushed, bludgeoned, shot at, set on fire, squished and endured various other types of bodily injury. The protection of rings kept him from being seriously hurt but he was still affected by the consequence of running at high speeds through cold air.

Lens said "You should probably get something to cover it."

"Like what, a scarf?" Sonic considered the image that would make. Heroic, cool and confident, all traits that he had but then he shook his head. "Maybe not, I'd look like a hipster."

"Hipster? Wouldn't it be better than having a hurting throat?" Lens asked.

"I guess" Sonic said. The neon lights blurred past the pair with Sonic was easily able to smash apart more badniks to release his animal buddies. At the same time to the hedgehog was considering his image with a scarf. Sonic thought it wouldn't be so bad if he used it for those really cold places like way up north.

Lens was faithfully keeping pace behind the hedgehog. The hedgehog noticed that, keeping that gray raccoon in the corner of his eye as he rotated his leg out to send some more flying badniks to blow apart as they bounced and crashed against each other.

It interested the hedgehog, the way the raccoon didn't seem to be getting faster. Lens just moving at the same pace but keeping the distance between them constant. Though the young hero did notice the raccoon had an advantage over him in jumping to higher places. "So how are you keeping up with me?" Sonic asked.

Lens looked down, eyebrows lowered in thought. He gave flick of his ears and said. "I'm not sure, I think I just make sure I travel more with every step I guess."

It wasn't an explanation that really made sense but it was good enough for Sonic. The hedgehog felt the surging pulse of the energy coming from the rings he had collected. The goal post that declared who claimed the area was up ahead. Furthermore there the shining glow of another large warp ring. Most likely to another nauseating special zone with a chaos emerald at its core.

He braced himself to jump into the bizarre world where direction was merely a suggestion and the background was an assault and battery charge against the eyes. He dove straight into the ring without hesitating. Sonic was beginning to get used to the bouncing off of those mysterious and suspicious orbs. Oh who was he kidding with those screams and panicked flailing about?

With another chaos emerald collected after much trial and suffering, Sonic popped out of the special zone. When Sonic returned however, it was to being seized by his shoulders and meeting a dilated set of eyes. Before the young hero was an agitated Lens. "Don't make me be alone." The raccoon said. There was an edge to the boy's voice. A delicate balance that could topple from the wrong move. It was built upon a foundation of despair and solitude.

Sonic could never let a person suffering remain that way. "Alright alright" hands pushing away the raccoon's worries and grip. "But I need to get these emeralds. Can't let Eggman get a hold of them." Sonic said, taking out the three chaos emeralds he had collected. He juggled them and said " If I need to go get them, I'll let you know 'kay?" The raccoon wasn't a bad kid and he did help. The ring tailed boy being a dab hand at taking out any badniks that tried catching the hedgehog from behind. Not that Sonic needed the help or anything. And just leaving this kid out here in the lurch with Eggman on the prowl wasn't an option ever in Sonic's opinion.

This city with only three people and a multitude of robots had its distance eaten away leaving a trail of wrecked mechanical parts and released animal friends bouncing off to safer pastures behind the duo. "Ah Sonic? Who are you?" Lens said.

It was a simple and odd question. The kind that came from somebody that viewed everything with innocent and unknowing eyes. To that Sonic could only answer with a simple response. "That's easy, I'm just a guy that loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." The world's fastest hedgehog said, pointing to himself with his thumb. Sure he was also the hero that fought against the evil of Eggman.

Sonic had his own questions for Lens, wanting the raccoon to open up some more and talk about who he was. He didn't have any company who could keep up with his speed, so he wanted to take advantage of the chance to chat while running.

Lens wasn't sure how to answer, coming up with broken responses that more or less said he didn't know. To the raccoon it was everything in his head was foggy and smudged. All he could do was paint in broad strokes with the colors of feelings and impressions. Everything else seemed too difficult for him to convey in any meaningful words.

Though making any coherent conversation was difficult when dropping down several stories at high speed. The pair used the momentum and a curve to make their way across the huge gaps between rooftops. The situation became more ridiculous when mighty spheres swinging around with sharp spikes made their appearance to block the way forward. Sonic ran rings around the dangerous traps laughing all the way, while Lens ducked under them.

"Isn't this great, just me, you, the wind, and all these traps and badniks to make it interesting." Sonic said. He curled into a ball to take out a trio of snail like badniks. Their spiked shells made attacking them from above a questionable course of action. But the sudden drop out of nowhere was a shocker. Thankfully there was an entire field of springs there to send the duo soaring back up to land safely on the other side.

It was all downhill from there and Sonic continuously went to collect any rings he could see. "How many chaos emeralds are there anyway?" Sonic asked.

"Seven" Lens said and when Sonic asked how did he know that. The raccoon could only answer that he didn't know.

It was as good an answer as any for now in Sonic's opinion, now that another giant warp ring was in front of them just beyond the goal signpost. Giving a thumbs up and a reassuring smile to Lens, Sonic dived back into the special zone. The dizzying area continued with its timeless existence solely for the protection of the chaos emerald held at the center of its maze. This time Sonic rushed through the entire setup grabbing his fourth chaos emerald.

Popping out of the exit, Sonic came back to Lens shuffling from foot to foot. The raccoon still had an uncomfortable look on his face and mouth turning down in the beginnings of a pout. Fingers were linked together in front of Lens whose eyes were still wide but without the sheer panic the first time Sonic left.

"Come on" Sonic said, pointing down an incline of buildings. "Eggman's around here I can feel it." The path they took went higher upwards towards the very tallest skyscrapers in the city. There the distance between rooftops became much wider. Crossing those large gaps had the hedgehog and raccoon balancing on convenient but perilous swaying platform bridges. One misstep would send them tumbling down on a one way trip to splat on the ground.

After dealing with that dizzying and unstable situation, the sound of their feet hitting the ground changed. It went from fairly sound of concrete to the rough scritch scratching of brick. Sonic skidded to a halt while Lens stopped on a dime. "Something stinks and I bet it's Eggman" Sonic said.

Dropping down like an unwelcome present from above, the mad scientist within his aircraft maniacally laughed. "Behold rodent, and you other rodent." The doctor pointed to Sonic and Lens in turn. "The Eggmobile S!" With a grand gesture, Dr Eggman presented his vehicle. Which looked exactly the same as it was before.

"Ehhh? What does the S stand for?" Lens asked. The raccoon had crossed a leg behind his other leg while he was looking up at the doctor. The egg-mobile's bottom suddenly had a spike jut out from it. "I still don't get it." Lens said.

"Pfft and what are you going to do with that Eggman?" Sonic placed his hands behind his quills, utterly unconcerned with whatever Eggman's contraption would do. The doctor so enraged swooped down upon the duo. Sonic and Lens broke apart from each other. The spike on the other hand stabbed into the brick bridge. Thrusters flared and the doctor rose up with a brick block leaving a hole in the bridge.

"So that's your plan." Sonic said "Well your little toy is gonna get wrecked faster than you can tear up this place." The hedgehog punched his hand and then spun towards the Egg-mobile.

"Get off you miserable little hedgehog" Eggman tried waving Sonic away but sadly the spike device took up the entire power supply for the Egg-mobile S and so Eggman had no other weapon to drive his enemy off. "Grrr I'll get you for this!" The doctor steadily piloted his vehicle, diving down and tearing up the bridge so to plunge Sonic and the other one to their doom. "Wait a minute. Where's that other rodent."

There was a satisfied cry from behind, and Eggman turned to gape at the raccoon plunging a hand right through the reinforced steel, sure it was scrap quality steel made from weak pig iron but it was still a hunk of metal. With a firm grab and tug, Lens tore out some important parts like the fuel lines. "What, what, what! That isn't possible, simply impossible, how could you reach through almost two inches of steel and assorted parts and not even have a scratch on you." Eggman said pointing to the target of his aggravation.

"I don't know, maybe rings?" Lens said blinking at the sad tubes that dripped oil onto the brick floor.

"Hey Eggman." Another voice came and Eggman already having veins bulging with anger turned towards the sound. Then Sonic bashed one time too many into the Egg-mobile setting off another chorus of explosions. "Made you look." Sonic said back to the doctor when he landed.

Eggman could only rage and retreat, muttering all the way. The two boys chased after the egg shaped round man who was actually gaining distance in spite of flying in a damaged machine. Thankfully for the doctor, a distraction allowed him to dive into a cave entrance. That distraction was another capsule containing Sonic's animal friends. As the little animals bounced and rushed out of their confines Lens turned to Sonic who was watching and making sure everybody escaped safely."Ah, what is it between you and Eggman?" Lens said as they continued the chase of the mad doctor into the caves he escaped to.


End file.
